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Zac Brown Band's Southern Ground isn't the only music fest hitting Riverfront Park this fall. Modern southern rock stars My Morning Jacket will headline the SoundLand Music Festival, which will bring more than a dozen rock and pop acts to The Lawn at Riverfront Park in downtown Nashville on October 6.

Now in its seventh year, the annual music fest formerly known as Next Big Nashville has changed its format significantly in 2012, shifting from a four-day, multi-venue music conference to a single-ticket, one-day event.

Nothing will ever displace Nashville’s Music City brand, but supplementing it with the city’s fast-growing foodie reputation can only add more flavor.

In September, Zac Brown Band’s Southern Ground Music & Food Festival will do just that, combining what Nashville Mayor Karl Dean calls “two things we are pretty good at here.”

“The unique combination of music and food falls right into the sweet spot of where we, as a city, are really hitting our stride these days,” Dean said as the Southern Ground festival’s musical lineup was announced at Riverfront Park today.

The event, which debuted in Charleston, S.C., in 2011, expands to Nashville this year. Taking place on Sept. 21-22 at The Lawn at Riverfront Park, it will feature an array of musical acts including Gregg Allman joining the Zac Brown Band as a special guest.

There will also be performances by Amos Lee, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Jerry Douglas, David Gray, The Lumineers, Los Lonely Boys, and a selection of Southern Ground artists including Sonia Leigh. Zac Brown “personally handpicked the artist lineup,” said Matt Maher, a member of the ROAR management team that represents the band.

“I think what happened was Zac basically got his wish list as far as what he thought would be some of his favorite artists,” said Clay Cook, who plays several instruments for the group and just recently moved to Nashville. “David Gray seems to be the one he’s the most stoked about, because we haven’t worked with him and he was hoping to at least meet him.”

Cook is especially jazzed about again playing with Lee, who is featured on the band’s most recent chart-topping album “Uncaged,” and Cook said the “and friends” special-guest portion of the event will be really special. Many of those guests are still being determined.

“For me,” Cook said, “I’m just glad that even though I will be quote-unquote working, I get to hang out and watch these people play.”

The band is traveling and did not attend Thursday’s announcement, but Maher said, “The Southern Ground Music and Food Festival represents Zac’s vision, and I quote Zac ‘Our goal is to roll out all the elements of southern hospitality into this festival — the hospitality, the food and the music — by super serving the fans with a full sensory experience.’”

The festival will offer a variety of culinary contributions from local chefs under the direction Rusty Hamlin, executive chef for Zac Brown Band. Hamlin’s food style is rooted with Louisiana and Southern tradition. In his role with the band, he is either on the road designing and preparing its famous “Eat & Greet” or at home in Atlanta at his restaurant Atkins Park.

Other chefs and festival food offering have yet to be announced, but Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau President Butch Spyridon believes the food element of the event will only enhance its — and the city’s — reputation.

The Nashville dining scene has had “quite an evolution over the last five years,” Spyridon said. “And now we can celebrate it.”

The goal? Make “the dining as memorable as the music,” he said.

Cook said it will be. Brown “believes taste is overlooked quite a bit,” Cook said of his bandmate, who once owned his own restaurant and is “actually a really amazing chef himself.”

Although the band is not the first to incorporate gourmet food and music into an event, “it’s important to us,” Cook said. “So it’s going to hopefully change the way people look at the average music festival that’s out there. There seems to be a lot of funnel cakes and pretty bad hamburgers at some of these.”

The country star's Outdoor Channel series Craig Morgan All Access Outdoors returns for its third season on July 1 in an episode that finds Morgan bringing his father and three uncles out on the road. The series airs at 10 p.m. CT Sundays on Outdoor Channel.

On July 13, Morgan will headline Fox & Friend's "All American Concert Series" on Fox News, and he'll make his acting debut on the TNT crime drama Rizzoli & Isles on July 17.

Between those TV appearances, Morgan will take the stage at the "Music City July 4th: Let Freedom Sing!" event at Nashville's Riverfront Park on July 4, where he'll perform along with The Mavericks, Sarah Darling, Music City Hit-Makers and the Nashville Symphony. Head to www.musiccityjuly4th.com for details.

After holding its inaugural event last year in Charleston, South Carolina, Zac Brown Band will bring its Southern Ground Music and Food Festival to Nashville, setting up shop at The Lawn at Riverfront Park on September 21-22 before returning to Charleston for its second annual event in October.

The festival will feature nightly performances from Zac Brown Band with additional performers to be announced, and promises to bring together the group's "favorite musicians, craft vendors and artists and mouth-watering food and beverage delights."

The Lawn at Riverfront Park is a new concert location located downtown on the Cumberland River between the Shelby Street Bridge and Korean Veterans Boulevard.

The rock hitmakers’ performances are part of a two-day event with more than 100 professional and amateur barbecue teams competing for more than $25,000 in prizes and cash, the Music City Car Show and more.

Laura Bell Bundy bleeds blue when it comes to sports, and she makes no bones about it. To prove it, the Kentucky native is showing her true colors in a free concert at Riverfront Park on Thursday before the Kentucky vs. Western Kentucky game at LP Field.

Bundy will perform at 5:30 p.m., and the game starts at 8:15 p.m.

She promises to make it a memorable pre-game experience.

“We have a good time,” she says. “I have two backup singer/dancers and we dance while we sing. I entertain people as much as possible — a little bit of funny and a lot of fun. What I feel like a live show should be is not the record being performed in front of you. It should be a complete visual experience.”

As for who she’s rooting for, Bundy scoffs and says, “The University of Kentucky, no doubt.”

“I’m a true blue Kentucky fan and people can hate me for it, that’s OK. I grew up in Lexington and I’m a psycho.”

The Marshall Tucker Band had hits in the 1970’s with songs including “Fire on the Mountain,” “Can’t You See,” and “Heard it in a Love Song.”

“We’ll bring back those memories we gave fans those first 15 or 20 years of the band,” Gray says. “And all those people who bought all those gold and platinum records will be able to come and bring their grand kids and say, ‘Boy, I know where I was when I heard that song.’”

The festival – Saturday in Riverfront Park — has music on five stages, the Tennessee State Championship BBQ Competition, a car show, and a kid’s zone. Admission is $15 for one day or $25 for two days.

Performances from Darius Rucker and The Sing-Off stars Street Corner Symphony will lead up to the main event, and the party will start early on the “First Stage” with sets from locals Ayla Brown, The Willis Clan, The Cleverlys and The Dirty Guv’Nahs.s.

Monday at Riverfront Park (First Avenue and Broadway). Entertainment on the First Stage starts at 12:30 p.m. Main stage acts begin at 7 p.m. Fireworks will start at approximately 9:30 p.m. Admission is free.